In Ferdous v Hasan, No. 2023-01005, 706543/22, 2025 N.Y. Slip Op. 01789, 2025 WL 908293 (N.Y.A.D. 2 Dept., Mar. 26, 2025), the court, inter alia, held that plaintiff sufficiently alleged a cause of action for hostile work environment sexual harassment.
From the decision:
A hostile work environment on the basis of sex exists ‘when the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.
Here, the vague allegation against Barnali Hasan that, on one occasion, she acted in a manner that was “intimidating, cruel and vicious” was insufficient to state a cause of action to recover damages for hostile work environment.
However, accepting the facts as alleged in the complaint as true, and according the plaintiffs the benefit of every possible favorable inference, the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged a cause of action to recover damages for a hostile work environment against Mahfujul Hasan, based upon allegations of improper touching and sexual advances toward the plaintiff Jannatul Ferdous.
[Citations omitted.]
Based on this, the court held that the lower court should have directed dismissal of the complaint, except for plaintiff’s hostile work environment cause of action.